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Vietnam – Le Kings under Trinh Lords (1573-1788)
Hien Tong – Emperor: 1740-1786
Bronze Canh Hung Thong Bao Cash Token 25mm, Struck 1740-1786
Reference: B 68.21, H 25.29, T 076
Chinese Symbols.
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Lê Hiển Tông (黎顯宗 20 May 1717 – 10 August 1786), born Lê Duy Diêu, was
the penultimate emperor of Vietnamese Lê Dynasty. He reigned from 1740 to 1786
and was succeeded by his grandson Lê Duy Kỳ.
At the time Vietnam was under the power of the Trịnh lords. During the reigns
of Lê Thuần Tông (1732–35) and Lê Ý Tông (1735–40), Trịnh Giang ruled Vietnam
with the title Uy Nam Vương, but he was deposed in 1740 due to poor leadership.
From 1740–67, Trịnh Doanh ruled with the title Minh Do Vương in the first part
of the reign of Lê Hiển Tông. He was followed by Trịnh Sâm, who ruled from
1767–82 with the title Tinh Do Vương. At this point the Lê dynasty began to
regain its power. Issue
He had twenty-three children, including:
Crown prince Lê Duy Vĩ, executed by the Trịnh lords in 1771 Lê Duy Cận (died
after 1786) Princess Lê Thị Ngọc Hân Princess Lê Thị Ngọc Bình
 The Trịnh lords (Vietnamese: Chúa Trịnh; Chữ Nôm: 主鄭; 1545–1787), formal title Trịnh Viceroy (Vietnamese: Trịnh vương; Hán tự: 鄭王), also known as Trịnh clan or the House of Trịnh, were a noble feudal clan who de facto ruled northern Vietnam during the Later Lê dynasty, Đại Việt. The Trịnh clan and their rivals, the Nguyễn clan, were both referred by their subjects as Chúa (lord) and controlled Đại Việt while the Later Lê emperors were reduced to only a titular position. The Trịnh lords traced their descent from Trịnh Khả, a friend and advisor to the 15th-century Vietnamese Emperor Lê Lợi ]. The Trịnh clan produced 12 lords who dominated the royal court of Later Lê dynasty and ruled northern Vietnam for more than 2 centuries.
After the death of emperor Lê Hiến Tông in 1504, the Lê dynasty began to decline. In 1527, the courtier Mạc Đăng Dung gained the opportunity to make a coup against the Lê dynasty, seized the throne from emperor Lê Cung Hoàng, and established the Mạc dynasty ruling the kingdom of Đại Việt. In 1533, the general and Lê royalist Nguyễn Kim revolted against the Mạc dynasty in Thanh Hóa and restore the Lê dynasty. Then, he tried to find the Lê dynasty’s successor who was a son of emperor Lê Chiêu Tông. The prince Lê Duy Ninh was enthroned with the title Lê Trang Tông. After 5 years of conflict, most of the southern region of Đại Việt was captured by the restored Lê dynasty, but not the capital city, Thăng Long.
The founder of the clan was Trịnh Kiểm, born in Vĩnh Lộc commune, Thanh Hóa province. Trịnh Kiểm was raised in a poor family. He often stole chickens from his neighbors because chicken was his mother’s favorite food. When his neighbors found out, they were extremely angry. One day, when Trịnh Kiểm left home, his neighbors abducted his mother and threw her down an abyss. Trịnh Kiểm returned home and panicked due to the disappearance of his mother. When he finally found his mother’s body, it was infested with maggots. After the death of his mother, he joined the army of the revived Lê dynasty led by Nguyễn Kim. Because of Trịnh Kiểm’s talent, he was given the hand of Kim’s daughter Ngọc Bảo, and became his son-in-law. In 1539, Trịnh Kiểm was promoted to general and received the title of Duke of Dực (Dực quận công). In 1545, after the assassination of Nguyễn Kim, Trịnh Kiểm replaced his father-in-law as the commander of the Lê dynasty’s royal court and military.
In 1517, Mạc Đăng Dung usurped the Lê dynasty. The Lê royalists under Lê Ninh, a descendant of the Royal family, escaped to Muang Phuan (today Laos). Marquis of An Thanh Nguyễn Kim summoned the people who were still loyal to the Lê emperor and formed a new army to begin a revolt against Mạc Đăng Dung. His daughter then married Trịnh Kiểm. Within five years, all of the region south of the Red River was under the control of the Nguyễn–Trịnh army but the two families were unable to conquer Ha Noi until 1592 .
In 1539, The armies of Nguyễn Kim and Trịnh Kiểm returned to Đại Việt captured Thanh Hoa province and crowned their own puppet Lê emperor, Lê Trang Tông. The war raged back and forth with the Nguyễn–Trịnh army on one side and the Mạc on the other until an official Ming delegation determined that Mạc Đăng Dung’s usurpation of power was not justified. In 1537, a very large Ming army was sent to restore the Lê family. Although Mạc Đăng Dung managed to negotiate his way out of defeat by the Ming, he had to officially recognize the Lê emperor and the Nguyễn–Trịnh rule over the southern part of Vietnam. But the Nguyễn–Trịnh alliance did not accept the Mạc rule over the northern half of the country and so the war continued. In 1541, Mạc Đăng Dung died.
A shipwrecked Chinese blown to Vietnam by the wind, Pan Dinggui in his book “Annan ji you” said that the Trinh restored the Le dynasty to power after Vietnam was struck by disease, thunder and winds when the Le was dethroned when they initially could not find Le and Tran dynasty royals to restore to the throne when he was in Vietnam in 1688. Pan also said that only the Le king was met by official diplomats from the Qing, not the Trinh lord.
In spite of the threat of Mạc dynasty in the north, Trịnh Kiểm’s priority was eliminating the Nguyễn lords’s power. After restoring Lê dynasty in 1533, Nguyễn Kim become the head of the government while emperor Lê Trang Tông was used as the figerhead of the state. Dương Chấp Nhất, the former Mạc dynasty’s mandarin that was governing Tây Đô fortress in Thanh Hoa province decided to surrender to Lê dynasty when Nguyễn Kim recaptured this province in 1543.
After seizing Tây Đô citadel and onward marching to attack Ninh Bình. in 20/5/1545, Dương Chấp Nhất invited Kim to visit his military camp. In the hot temperature of summer, Dương Chấp Nhất treated Kim with watermelon. After the party, Kim felt ill after return home and died in same day. Dương Chấp Nhất later returned to Mạc dynasty.
After the death of Kim, The government starts to turn into chaos after Kim’s death. The successor of the head of government was intentionally inherited by Kim’s eldest son, Nguyễn Uông, however, Uông was secretly assassinated by his brother-in -law (Trịnh Kiểm) and Trịnh Kiểm later took control of the government of Đại Việt.
In 1556, Emperor Lê Trung Tông died without an heir, and Trịnh Kiểm aimed to seize the Lê dynasty’s throne but he was still worried about public opinion. Therefore, he sought advice from the former mandarin Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm who was living a secluded life. Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm advised that Trịnh Kiểm should not take the Lê dynasty’s throne although the Lê dynasty was just a puppet. Trịnh Kiểm decided to enthrone on the Lê dynasty’s throne Lê Duy Bang, who was a 6th generation descendant of Lê Trừ (older brother of emperor Lê Thái Tổ). Lê Duy Bang took the throne with the title Lê Anh Tông and the Trịnh lords continually controlled the government with the emperor as the figurehead.
In 1570, Trịnh Kiểm died and there was a power struggle between his sons Trịnh Cối and Trịnh Tùng, who fought each other in the war. Simultaneously, the army of Mạc attacked the Lê dynasty from the north and Trịnh Cối was surrendered to the Mạc dynasty. The Emperor Lê Anh Tông supported Trịnh Cối to become the next Trịnh lord and co-operated with him to defeat Trịnh Tùng. Trịnh Tùng found out about this conspiracy, meaning that Emperor Lê Anh Tông with 4 sons had to flee to other places. Later, Trịnh Tùng enthroned Emperor Lê Anh Tông’s youngest son, prince Đàm, as the next emperor with title Lê Thế Tông. After that, Trịnh Tùng searched for, captured, and murdered Emperor Lê Anh Tông.
Both Trịnh and Nguyễn declared that Lê dynasty is the legitimate government of Đại Việt As the years passed, Nguyễn Hoàng became increasingly secure in his rule over the southern province and increasingly independent. While he cooperated with the Trịnh against the Mạc, he ruled the frontier lands as a governor. With the final conquest of the north, the independence of the Nguyễn was less and less tolerable to the Trịnh. In 1600, with the ascension of a new Emperor, Lê Kinh Tông, Hoàng broke relations with the Trịnh-dominated court, although he continued to acknowledge the Lê emperor. Matters continued like this until Hoàng’s death in 1613. ] The historical victory of the Trịnh’ over the Mạc was a common theme in public Vietnamese theaters.
In 1620, after the enthronement of another figurehead Lê Emperor (Lê Thần Tông), the new Nguyễn leader, Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, refused to send tax money to the court in Đông Đô to protest the dictatorship of Trịnh lords. In 1623, Trịnh Tung died, he was succeeded by his oldest son Trịnh Tráng. After five years of increasingly hostile talk, fighting broke out between the Trịnh and the Nguyễn in 1627. While the Trịnh ruled over much more populous territory, the Nguyễn had several advantages. First, they initially were on the defensive and rarely launched operations into the north. Second, the Nguyễn were able to take advantage of their contacts with the Europeans, specifically the Portuguese, to produce advanced cannons with the help of European engineers (for more details, see Artillery of the Nguyễn lords). Third, the geography was favorable to them, as the flat land suitable for large organized armies is very narrow at the border between the Nguyễn lands and the Trinh territories – the mountains nearly reach to the sea. After the first offensive was beaten off after four months of battle, the Nguyễn built two massive fortified lines that stretched a few miles from the sea to the hills. These walls were built north of Huế (between the Nhật Lệ River and the Sông Hương River). The walls were about 20 feet tall and seven miles long. The Nguyễn defended these lines against numerous Trịnh offensives that lasted (off and on) from 1631 till 1673, when Trịnh Tạc concluded a peace treaty with the Nguyễn Lord, Nguyễn Phúc Tần, dividing Vietnam between the two ruling families. This division continued for the next 100 years.
The Trịnh lords ruled reasonably well, maintaining the fiction that the Lê monarch was the emperor. However, they selected and replaced the emperor as they saw fit, having the hereditary right to appoint many of the top government officials. Unlike the Nguyễn lords, who engaged in frequent wars with the Khmer Empire and Siam, the Trịnh lords maintained fairly peaceable relations with neighboring states. In 1694, the Trịnh lords got involved in a war in Laos, which turned into a multi-sided war with several different Laotian factions as well as the Siamese army. A decade later, Laos had settled into an uneasy peace with three new Lao kingdoms paying tribute to both Vietnam and Siam. Trịnh Căn and Trịnh Cương made many reforms of the government, trying to make it better, but these reforms made the government more powerful and more of a burden to the people which increased their dislike of the government. During the wasteful and inept rule of Trịnh Giang, peasant revolts became more and more frequent. The key problem was a lack of land to farm, though Giang made the situation worse by his actions. The reign of his successor Trịnh Doanh was preoccupied with putting down peasant revolts and wiping out armed gangs which terrorized the countryside.
Business by the Dutch East India company was ceased with the Trịnh lords on 1700.
The Trịnh lords started employing eunuchs extensively in the Đàng Ngoài region of the northern Red river delta area of Vietnam as leaders of military units. Trịnh ruled northern Vietnam used its eunuchs in the military and civilian bureaucracy. Many Buddhist temples had money and land donated by eunuchs who gained more wealth and influenced. Field army units, secret police, customs duty taxes, finance, land deeds and military registers and tax harvesting in son Nam province (Binh phien) as well as the position of Thanh Hóa military governor were delegated to eunuchs. The supervisor services, military, civil service and court all had eunuchs appointed to work in them and they were the most faithful followers of the Trịnh lords as a check on the power of civil and military officials. Eunuchs were employed as building project supervisors and provincial governors by Trịnh Cương.
Cash was a type of coin of China and East Asia, used from the 4th century BC until the 20th century AD. Originally cast during the Warring States period, these coins continued to be used for the entirety of Imperial China as well as under Mongol, and Manchu rule. The last Chinese cash coins were cast in the first year of the Republic of China. Generally most cash coins were made from copper or bronze alloys, with iron, lead, and zinc coins occasionally used less often throughout Chinese history. Rare silver and gold cash coins were also produced. During most of their production, cash coins were cast but, during the late Qing dynasty, machine-struck cash coins began to be made. As the cash coins produced over Chinese history were similar, thousand year old cash coins produced during the Northern Song dynasty continued to circulate as valid currency well into the early twentieth century.
In the modern era, these coins are considered to be Chinese “good luck coins”; they are hung on strings and round the necks of children, or over the beds of sick people. They hold a place in various superstitions, as well as Traditional Chinese medicine, and Feng shui. Currencies based on the Chinese cash coins include the Japanese mon, Korean mun, Ryukyuan mon, and Vietnamese văn.
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